04.06.10
Travel Rule #1
If you never turn the other direction out of the hotel, then you could be missing the Dunkin’ Donuts, a coffee shop, the comic book store, and a sushi place that serves a dish called Ride the Wild Donkey Roll.
06.09.08
Where Do We Go From Here…
My time in Philadelphia is drawing to a close. After six weeks and two engagement extensions, we’re wrapping up the project and bugging out. My weeks have gone from reasonable hours to excessive, excessive to the point where my performance mentor has called twice to let me know I’m working at about 136% utilization. Supposedly there is some point when utilization hits a certain point and an email, I’m guessing, is generated so that the people who care are notified and can “reach out” as we say in consultant land. I appreciated the gesture, both times really, but honestly, you don’t think I don’t know that I’m working the kind of hours that equate into 136% utilization? I’m just saying.
But Philadelphia has been good. It’s a city I hadn’t spent much time in though honestly, I guess I could still say that since I haven’t hardly left the gayborhood except for a martini run at the Continental diner that one time. So for me, Philadelphia is the gayborhood and that’s OK. Good food, good architecture, good-looking menz, and street cruising. I’m even a regular at a bar and I haven’t ever had that, anywhere, not even (or, especially) in New York, where I’ve lived since 1996.
So I’m departing Philadelphia this week with another engagement under my belt, this one challenging and difficult in ways that I hadn’t expected, but better for it…always better for new experiences, pleasant or not. I’m NYC bound next week and slipping in a short 5K corporate run next Thursday then it’s off to my next assignment the week after which will carry me through until the end of July. I understand jealousy can greet me, even from the best of friends, because of my cosmopolitan consultanty life-style, getting to jet off to strange and exotic places, seeing and meeting new people. This of course is always the “one-after” engagement meaning the one after this next one coming up, which for me just happens to be in Omaha, Nebraska. I mean, Omaha, Nebraska in July…all of July. And me with my whole humidity issues and East Coast mentality; a recipe for disaster, I’d think. In preparation, I’ve shaved my head down to my buzz cut so I don’t have to deal with hair product and the perfect zshuzz of curls styled ever so carefully to look like they effortlessly fell that way out of the shower. As far as the East Coast mentality, I’m not sure you can even get a 136% utilization rate west of the Mississippi, even if you find that elusive 25th hour in the day. But I understand Omaha does have some gentlemanly pubs of a certain caliber and I was raised in farm country, after all, so I’m sure I’ll be able to slip in, under the radar, and figure it out.
05.23.08
Revisiting the City of Brotherly Love
The interesting thing I’ve noticed about Philadelphia, and maybe it’s true about any bigger city where more time is spent then just a day or short weekend, is that the guys around where I’m working are completely hot. Of course I’m situated in the gayborhood so that might have something to do with it, but overall, even my straight, female peers are noticing.
“These boys have their fashion on,” said my favorite one.
So eye-candy is a great, unrealized perk of this job. I have to say that getting cruised repeated is a nice ego stroke and something I’m not used to. Even today in line at Cosi for lunch, this hot cub was standing beside me and gave me the look over and smiled, to which I smiled back because I’m making a conscious effort to bury the shy, low self-esteem dorkus deep and far away. It’s even more remarkable because I, against my better judgement, shaved off my continuing attempt at facial hair before the client thing at Yankee Stadium a few days back. Without that slight shading along my jaw line, I feel like I have a Hutt waddle and a triple chin. I actually might but I still got cruised so yay me.
So luckily, our project is going to stretch into mid-June so I have a few more weeks to enjoy the city. I’m currently facinated with Matthew Izzo’s designer boutique which has some great stuff as well as a progressive hair salon in the back which gave me a great cut yesterday. He’s a total snack so it’s nice to go in and browse low cut jeans that I can’t get my fat ass into and see him hanging out in his own shop. The team is also currently working our way through some pretty great restraunts around Center City and Old City. I’m telling you, Philadelphia has it happening right now.
Of course my belief in the balance of all things leads me to believe that I’ll be cast out to some remote subburb of some no-name place for the next six months and all the good vibes from Philadelphia will dry up. But it’s only a short train ride from NYC so I can always find my way back.
11.20.07
Transitions
So after 12 years of being at the same institution, I’ve finally embraced one of my biggest fears which is, for anyone who doesn’t know, taking risks. I went out and found a great new job and resigned from what has been my home for a long, long time. Change is hard and I’m not one to crawl out from under the warmth of a super security blanket, but it’s time to grow and try something new and risk failure but also risk actually making it work.
Being at an academic medical center for so long, I’ve grown accustomed to the environment, people, and how things operate so moving out into a for-profit industry is something completely new to me. Also, I’ll be traveling 4-5 days a week all over the US. That was really a big selling point for me as I’ve always had the wanderlust. So now I get to keep Jeff AND travel. I could be coming to a city near you! We’ll hang out and have drinks and you can discover that I’m much more boring then my blog would suggest.
So I’m in the final four weeks of my departure and the blog is back up and running. Yay me!